Xmas Time, Mistletoe and Crime
by Dr Namgge
Summary: The Chaotix have been called in on a case at the docks; an entire cargo ship has vanished. Many questions remain unsolved: How do you make an entire boat disappear? Who could've done it? And what do they want with several tons of mistletoe?


It was eleven AM when the crew made it to the docks. It was a cold December morning, with ice underfoot. The three of them were headed to the foreman's office.

"You never told us what the case was." Espio reminded Vector, after the crocodile had gone on for slightly too long mentioning how this case was being paid in-part in advance.

"Oh yeah," Vector replied, "Dat call came from the head of shipping at this docks. They said they'd lost a mistletoe delivery."

"Why would anyone report a box of stolen mistletoe to a detective agency?" Espio replied, not quite understanding the case.

"It's not a box," Vector replied, "An entire delivery, boat an' all. That's why we're at tha docks. Because whenever there's missin' mistletoe, you can bet that there'll be some kind a shippin' involved."

"But who'd want so much misty toe?" Charmy asked, as he darted between the pair.

"Mistletoe," Espio corrected, "And that's what we're about to find out."

The trio began wandering around the docks looking for clues. There was nothing abnormal though it was obvious that the dock workers were also puzzled by this turn of events, with several coming up with theories, some whispering about aliens, or ghosts, or worst of all Eggman. Vector however was having none of it, none of the suggested suspects had any reason that he could deduce to steal an entire ship of mistletoe.

The three entered the foreman's office. The foreman was the man who was paying them, a man whose job was most likely going to be gone before Christmas if he didn't , and his office suitably showed it, with lots of panicked paperwork scattered all over the desk, and a coat on the floor that on any other day probably would've been hung up. But now there were bigger matters.

"It simply vanished," the dock foreman said when he was asked about what happened, "It was there at five this morning after getting back from Northside Island, gone at seven, but the entire crew are still portside, and many of 'em were saying it just disappear right before their eyes."

"Got it," Vector nodded, as the pair let the foreman get on with his work.

Outside the foreman's office Vector turned to his cohorts, "Whaddya reckon then?"

"His breath wasn't steady," Espio replied, "He's hiding something."

"That doesn't mean it's an inside job," Vector replied, "just that he doesn't know who's coulda done it. But he's also got financial troubles," Vector said, "Some of his papers weren't company ones."

"But if he did it?" Charmy puzzled, "Where'd he put the boat?"

"I dunno," Vector replied, "but I think it's about time we took a walk along da pier."

The Chaotix crew began walking along towards the coast. Carefully they made their way along the pier, examining it for evidence. The wood creaked underfoot, and the slowly thawing frost had ruined what footprints may have been left behind earlier in the day.

"Whaddya think?" Vector asked, "Could they have sunk the boat?"

"A sinking boat, in a port full of experienced sailors? It's hard to believe that it would either happen that quickly, or that no-one would notice it first," Espio replied.

"True," Vector replied, "Hey Charmy can you get a view from above, I wanna know if there'd be any way someone could'a made that boat fly."

"Sure thing," Charmy agreed, as he took off to hover over where the boat was, "I just need to... oof!" The bee's body collided with a very cold invisible wall, "Hey, there's something here."

"You okay?" Vector asked.

"Yeah," the bee answered, rubbing his nose, "but check the water!"

The crocodile and the chameleon looked at the water. "Seems fine ta me," Vector said.

"No boss," Espio replied, "Look closer, the ripples."

Vector looked at the current. The tide was now going out, but around that pier, the water seemed to be hitting off something. Vector took one look at it, before turning around. Looking at another boat, he saw the exact same pattern in the murky water.

"So that's how they made da boat disappear," the crocodile mused, "it really vanished jus' like Espio."

"But why?"

"I think I gots an idea," Vector replied, "But first I say we needs to know how. Espio, can you use that ninja skill of yours to go inside the boat. I gotta feelin' the answers to how's still on board."

The chameleon nodded. Quick as a flash, he disappeared into his surroundings, and began to utilise his years of training to detect his surroundings. Meanwhile, Charmy returned to Vector, and the pair began scouting around the dockyard further.

"Should we tell the foreman we found his boat?" Charmy grinned, pleased with how he managed to spot it first.

"Not yet Charmy," Vector replied, "Summat tells me he already knows about where the boat is. Right now we should go find out more about the delivery."

Espio found himself in the back of the boat. It was deserted, but with no signs of forced entry, or any sort of struggle. No broken locks or windows, and none of the equipment was stolen. The chameleon kept wandering though, searching for a source of the invisibility. After much scouring of the innards, he returned to the top when he heard a faint buzzing. He couldn't hear it at first due to the noise of the docks, but now he picked up on it. Closing his eyes, he focused in on it. It sounded just like Charmy in flight, but Espio knew he would've seen Charmy. With further searching he found it, a seemingly large electrical device, also invisible.

"Vector, come in," Espio said quietly into a wrist communicator, "The ships been fitted with some sort of cloaking device, but it's bolted down."

"Think ya can break it?"

"Yes, but..."

"Wait there then. We're gonna return this boat right to the foreman, and collect our reward."

"But that doesn't solve the case," Charmy piped in.

"Oh yes it does boys."

Five minutes later, the foreman, lead by an eager Vector and Charmy, returned to the dockside. "I thought you said you found my boat," he yelled in frustration as he noticed the empty dock he was being led to.

"Don't worry," Charmy grinned, "we can bring it back!"

"Now Espio," Vector commanded into his wrist. Sure enough, the chameleon followed the order tossing a couple of shurikens at the device. It fizzled slightly, before exploding with a small bang. The chameleon leapt back as it did, and watched as the boat slowly revealed itself.

Vector watched the foreman carefully. First his face was confused, then appalled when the boat returned. 'Just as I suspected', the crocodile thought to himself. But then the foreman's face turned to a bewildered anger, "Where's the shipment!" he cried out, his voice both agitated and baffled by the loss.

"Wait, what?" Vector spat out, "Whaddya mean 'where's da shipment'? Didn't you plant this cloak on it to try an' claim tha insurance?"

"Woah, hey," the foreman stuttered. He squirmed in the spot. "N-now just a sec, I didn't."

"I saw the finances in yer office," Vector replied, "an' you're needin' this money."

The foreman hesitated for a moment, "okay fine," he relented, realising the magnitude of what was going on, "I was gonna pretend that the boat had been gone so I could claim it on insurance, but I had no plans to take the delivery, I swear."

"A likely story," Charmy replied, "How can we trust you when you already confessed to bein' a bad guy?"

Espio appeared behind them, having gotten off the boat much quicker now he could see exactly where everything was. "If you were really going to fake a crime, why'd you call a detective agency?"

The foreman sweated nervously as the three animals surrounded him. "Y-you guys," he stuttered, "you had the smallest ad in the phone book. It was full of typos. T-the insurers, t-they wouldn't pay out unless I filed a r-report, so I hired you cos I t-thought you guys were the worst detectives in town."

"Is that why ya paid da money upfront?"

The foreman nodded, "I was gonna make thirty times what I paid you guys, and then I'd have the boat return, and absorb the shipment. I'd have all the insurance money for myself, losing the details for it all in the books"

"What, in-between the pages?" Charmy asked confused.

"He means he'd hide the details in his accounts." Espio answered, "Though you picked an odd choice, considering how mistletoe is a seasonal good at best."

"Mistletoe?" the foreman replied, confused, "It can't be mistletoe. This was scheduled to be a delivery of processed iron."

"Hang on a second," Vector said, his hand scratching the bottom of his long jaw, "You're tellin' me you were planning on turnin' a delivery of iron invisible, to fraudulently claim on insurance, only for the delivery to actually go missin', and be summat else entirely? I think you're gonna have a lot of explainin' ta do." The crocodile finished, as the police finally showed up to the docks.

After a few minutes, and a small talk with the boys in blue, the Chaotix had seen the last of the foreman. But for Vector and Espio at least, they were more interested in what the gathered crowd were whispering. Most of them were discussing about how surprising it was, or wondering about their employment with their boss out of the picture, but a couple were equally as baffled as Vector was.

"So what do you suppose we do next?" Espio asked, as the three of them walked past the crowds.

"I say we go home and have some figgy pudding!" Charmy chimed.

"It's not Christmas yet Charmy," Vector replied, "besides; we're still on a mission."

"But the case is closed isn't it? We caught the criminals," the bee replied.

"Maybe, but we're still down a literal boatload of mistletoe. If we don't find it then we can't really call ourselves detectives now can we?" Vector rhetorically replied, "Besides, after we solved da missing boat case, I was able ta persuade da head of shipping ta let us carry on. He's gonna pay us too."

"Yippee!" Charmy screamed in excitement, back flipping in the air.

The three of them began thinking. They knew that the foreman made the boat disappear, with help from some technology he'd managed to acquire after one of Eggman's unsuccessful invasion attempts, equipment that the police had said they'd be taking to G.U.N. The trio also knew that none of their eyewitnesses ever reported the boat as having missing its delivery contents, so they concluded the mistletoe disappeared after the boat had turned invisible. Thanks to Espio's investigation, they also knew that their suspect had done it without leaving a trace behind.

"So the question is," Espio concluded, "Why did the foreman think it was a delivery of iron, and did the perpetrator also think they were getting iron?"

"Isn't that two questions?" Charmy asked.

"I dunno," Vector replied to Espio, "A freight container can contain upta a hundred shipping containers. That'd be thousands of tons of mistletoe. C'mon guys, let's find that mistletoe first. We find that, we find our suspect."

Espio replied, "That mistletoe could be anywhere. We should check the boat for clues again."

"But we already did that," whined Charmy.

"Yeah," Vector replied, "only now we can all see it."

The three of them clambered back on board the boat. Scouring every inch carefully, they eventually reached the control room. They had already spent half hour searching the rest of the boat, and hadn't found anything.

"It doesn't look like there's anything here," said Espio, as he entered. Charmy decided to flit about the whole room, before fiddling with one of the computers.

"There's gotta be summat," Vector replied, before noticing the bee pressing buttons on the keyboard "Hey Charmy, don't touch that."

"Sorry," Charmy buzzed, "Wow this boat's been everywhere, Westopolis, South Island, Turquoise Hill, Northside Island, even the Mystic Ruins."

"Wait, what'd ya say?"

"The boat's been to the Mystic Ruins. That's what it says on this 'puter."

"That's not a computer," Espio explained, "that's a GPS."

"Wait, dat's it!" Vector exclaimed, "The perp's sailed the boat away an' back."

"But why return it?" Espio asked.

"We'll find that out at da Mystic Ruins, c'mon boys."

Two hours later, the three of them had found a secluded cave within the coastline of the Mystic Caves that looked like the perfect place to hide a boat. At Vector's command, Espio once again had snuck in and had a look around while invisible.

"The coasts clear," Espio said, "but it looks like a smuggling ring in there."

"A smuggling ring!" Vector exclaimed, "I'm gonna get the police in on this. We can't let this go unreported, even if it's not our case."

A few minutes later, after Vector had reported it, the three were inside, fully exploring the cave. They didn't have to search very far, as they began to notice mistletoe floating out to sea from the cave while exploring this new dock. The three of them had their suspicions confirmed when they saw the right logo on a shipping container full of mistletoe.

"That's it," Vector exclaimed, "We've found the mistletoe!"

"Too bad most of it's water soaked and ruined," Espio exclaimed, picking up some very soggy plants.

"I guess they thought it was iron too," Vector replied.

"Whaddya mean?" Charmy buzzed, not understanding."

"Isn't it obvious," Vector replied, "whoever gave the foreman dat cloakin' machine double-crossed 'im. Once the boat was invisible, they took it away, took all da shippin' containers off, and then sailed it back. Dat way they get whatever dat foreman was gonna pay 'em, plus they can sell all da iron, without the foreman bein' able to report 'em for it without castin' suspicion on himself."

"And they can't sell the mistletoe, because you can't sell that much mistletoe without makin' people know ya took it," Charmy finished, putting on his best Vector impersonation.

"'Zactly," Vector agreed, "Which just means that whoever set this ring up is our culprit."

"So you want us to wait for the guilty to return?" Espio asked.

"Nah," Vector said, "we'll let da police deal wit' that. We gotta give 'em summat ta do," Vector concluded, not wanting to admit he didn't like the idea of confronting an entire smuggling ring, "We'll just wait here 'til they arrive."

The police arrived ten minutes later, after which Vector explained everything to them. Sure enough, the police also found what Vector had. Unfortunately for the police, the people responsible for this cave had decided to abandon it just a few hours earlier. The police had apparently been trying to trace this cartel for some time, and were grateful for the Chaotix's intervention, but this time they had not yet managed to get there man.

Vector was kept in the loop of the investigation for several days, but the trail went cold again. Most of the mistletoe was unfortunately unsalvageable, but the police did manage to find some that was still good, and the Chaotix returned it to the docks. It was not a perfect result for the crew, but they had at least solved the crime.

"Well, I guess we won't find out who actually stole that misty toe then," Charmy said, as the three of them sat in their office.

"Not yet anyway," Vector replied, "But one good thing came out of this."

"Which is?" Espio asked.

"We got paid! I gots enough to even give ya an Xmas bonus!"

* * *

**Written for the Kelviniana forum Mistletoe Challenge**; said challenge being: _"Write a one-shot in the Sonic the Hedgehog category. It should involve mistletoe. The importance of mistletoe must be clear to most members of the audience. Plotless romance will be frowned upon." _Time will tell if this is what they want, but the story has both mistletoe and shipping. Also, yes, the title's contrived, but I'm trying to write a story that starts with every letter of the alphabet, and what other chance am I going to have for 'X'?


End file.
